The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/08/31 at 20:00 EDT

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/08/31 at 20:00 EDT

Book club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday. Quiet night in on Friday. It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes too. Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers,

you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit Spexsavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam. Eye exams provided by independent optometrists. From CBC News, the world this hour, I'm Mike Miles. An evacuation order is now in effect for Fort Providence in the Northwest Territories, with a fast-moving wildfire burning about two kilometers away, an expected shift in-wind direction could drive the flames towards the hamlet. Our forecast weather is winds from the south through much of the day,

changing to north by late afternoon to early evening. This is our troublesome wind. That's the type of wind that would push the fire towards. the community. There is a risk that the fire does reach the community by this evening. Structure protection teams are in Fort Providence working to protect homes and critical infrastructure. Another fire force of evacuation of Wati yesterday. Firefighters say they've had favorable wins for the last 24 hours. The fire has grown, but it's moving away from Wattie. The number of new wildfires in BC has shot up over the past few days, caused by hot and dry

conditions as well as lightning strikes. The coastal fire center in southwest B.C. saw just over a thousand lightning strikes just on Friday, and a number of fires were sparked near Pemberton. Sam Bellion is a fire information officer. Fire danger rating across the coastal fire center right now is a mix of moderate to high. So in these conditions, any spark can cause a wildfire. We did see some precipitation along with this lightning event,

but it won't be enough to soak those finer fuels on our forest floors that are primed for ignition or to extinguish any fires. Bellion says that many of the fires were located in high. alpine areas. A New Brunswick researcher says the dramatic rise in wildfires this summer is assigned forestry practices need to change. So far this year, that province has had more than 300 fires compared to just under 200 last year. Anthony Taylor is a professor of forest ecology at the University of New Brunswick. He says forestry practices that promote monocultures can increase the risk of wildfires because software burns faster. We're thinning or spraying our

for us to promote the conifers because that's what our industry relies on the most, are we by default making it more vulnerable to burning? That's something it should be investigated more. Taylor's calling on the government to promote more diversity in its forests and to research how monocultures impact the spread of wildfires. A recent report from Alberta's information and privacy commissioner is calling on the province to regulate the use of artificial intelligence. Emily Ray Passioc has more. AI's expansion into daily life continues. now, there's no framework to govern the use of AI in the province. Blair-Tard Frost is an assistant

professor of political science at the University of Alberta. She says there should be. I think as the report highlights, there's particular concerns that people tend to have around personal data, how government use of AI is going to be used to handle people's personal data. Chris Stinner is an assistant commissioner at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. He says his office's report is timely. The last thing everybody wants, and I think we can agree on that, is for Alberta to become a poster child, the foster child of a botched AI adoption. The innovation and technology ministry spokesperson told CBC in an email that the ministry is exploring its options, as it believes AI is an incredibly powerful tool with potential risks for misuse. Emily Ray Passiak, CBC News, Edmonton.

$25.40 an hour. That's how much money. a person needs to make to cover the basic costs of living, according to the Center for Policy Alternatives. Russell Williams' co-offer of a recent report that says a number is based on what a family with two children need to cover a household basics like household, housing, food, and other living expenses. And we sort of tally that up as an annual budget, and then we work backwards from that as to how much you have to earn and then pay your taxes and get your various government transfers that occur in order to figure out what that sort of hourly wage needs to be in order for you to just keep your head above water. So this is a very conservative estimate.

The minimum wage ranges from $15 an hour in Alberta to a high of $1785 in BC. That is your world this hour. For news anytime, visit our website, CBCNews.ca. For CBC News, I'm Mike Miles. Thank you.